Wheel to Wheel Racing at VORRA Short Course

Posted on April 21, 2010

RENO,NV APRIL 20, 2010: With a full weekend of warm California sun shining down on the Prairie City OHV Park, round two of short course racing had the crowd on their feet cheering. The track was slightly different adding a tight inside left hand turn that challenged the big cars, and a double jump on the backside downhill that made quite a few drivers pucker as they attempted to clear it.

Saturday’s ATV race was a huge success with all of the riders enjoying the new course that added some more technical sections. There were more Pro Riders on hand with Tony Fagundes riding for Bradley’s Raceworks taking the win and Ed Teixeira coming in second. There will be additional changes made to the ATV program that will continue to increase the popularity of the series.

Sunday’s Car and Truck racing had the pits full of powerful vehicles. Sam Berri had his hands full in his desert car against Tim Compton’s Drakart Buggy, but after a few laps of racing in the first moto Compton lost his chain drive and Berri took the Class 1 win. Brad Falin took his second overall win for the weekend in the Ultra 4 Class with Kevin Yoder in second place.

The GroupT class has become one of the more entertaining classes to watch with the mixture of 4, 6 and 8 cylinder trucks all running wheel to wheel. The V8 guys are not finding it easy to slingshot around the lighter, nimble trucks due to the suspension, weight and engine displacement rules. With neck-to-neck battles often dependent on whether or not the driver took the double jump, Ben Phillips was the overall winner in his 4 cylinder powered Trophy Lite with Mike Koenig in second.

Class 11’s Bug Invasion brought four “Herbie” cars to the start line, and the crowd to their feet. Everyone was cheering for their favorite color as all four of them cut it up around the track. No, they did not attempt the double jump, but most did get big air off the finish line jump. Bob Messer took first for the day after seeing the checker flag 2 out of 3 motos with Gary Herrod settling for second. In Class 9, Jay Schroeder took first and Kathy Keller came in second with a broken ball joint ending her day early.

The grudge match of the weekend was between the two brothers, VORRA announcer BJ Butcher and brother Tristen Butcher who took to the track for Moto 2 of Class 10. BJ, in the Red Team Racing car, took the holeshot but Tristan, in Tyler Mort’s car, nudged by him in the first lap at the new “paperclip” turn. BJ didn’t give up and in a gutsy pass after the dreaded double, he took the checker flag. Overall winners of Class 10 were Patrick Timmons and Steve Bradford. There was also great racing action in the Sportsman class with Terry Shelton taking the class win, and VORRA’s Nathan McBride took second. The VORRA family is active in the sport and it’s that insight that makes them strive so hard to make every race a great race for the participants.

The biggest growth class for this year has been the UTV class with seven cars showing up for the green flag. Stock and modified UTV’s set the pace around the track and battled for the win. The consistency of finishes put Jon Crowley on the podium with Scott Lentz in second. The everlasting Pilot class had an overall winner of Aaron Rupley and Miles Berghold in second.

“This was another great round of racing,” exclaimed Wes Harbor, VORRA race promoter. “Now we get to see what these drivers and cars are made of out in the desert.” The VORRA series heads for Nevada to 4 desert races before they will return to finish the season with two final short course events in October. The first desert race will be a 300 mile race in Yerington, NV over Memorial Day weekend.

Valley Off Road Racing Association (VORRA)VORRA was established in 1975 as a family-oriented organization and is led by current promoter Wes Harbor who believes that “off road racing has its roots in people’s garages”. VORRA is the only organization to offer both short course races and desert races as part of its overall season championship. Each race draws over 60 racers between multiple classes available for Cars, Trucks, Pilots, ATV, UTV and Trophy Karts. In 2010 VORRA has added Xtreme Truck and Ultra 4 to their line-up of sanctioned pro classes. More information can be found at www.vorra.net